In Rome there is a church that houses a wonderful fresco by Raphael
The amazing fresco “The Sibyls” by Raffaello Sanzio is located inside the Basilica of Santa Maria della Pace: it can be admired from the Sala delle Sibille, on the first floor of the Bramante Cloister, next to the Caffetteria Bistrot. The frescoes are found in the Chigi chapel and were commissioned by the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi to Raphael. Let’s go and visit this wonder.
The painter imagined two large arches, one with the figures of the Sibyls and the other with the figures of the Prophets. Of the two, only that of the Sibyls is attributed to Raphael. The arch of the Sibyls dates back to 1514.
Raffaello Sanzio was an Italian painter and architect, one of the most famous of the Renaissance. Considered one of the greatest artists of all time, his work marked an essential path for all subsequent painters and was of vital importance for the development of the artistic language of the centuries.
The frescoes of the Sibyls and Angels are a splendid example of formal beauty and erudition.
As reported by the website of the Chiostro del Bramante, the perfect ensemble of the composition, marked by the central putto and by the harmonic specularity of the figures, typical of Raphael, is full of symbolic and literary references. The evident relationship is between the angels carrying the divine message and the Sibyls who will announce it to the world, essential figures of connection between the pagan era to which they belong and the imminent Christian era.
Their importance in Renaissance iconography is also evidenced by their vivid presence in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The comparison between Michelangelo’s sibyls and those of Raphael once again confirms the stylistic differences between the two great ones of the 1500s. Michelangelo’s figures are powerful and plastically define their inner strength. Those of Raphael are elegant and lyrical, soft and harmonious like those of all his paintings.
Able to dominate the future by knowing it in advance as seers, the four figures are however entirely attracted in various ways by the appearance of God’s messenger angels. They are thus transformed into a new interpretation of the ancient in a Christian sense.
Painted with perfect symmetry around the arch overlooking the entrance to the second Chigi chapel, the four Cumaean Sibyls, Persian, Phrygia and Tiburtina, are represented by young girls, with the exception of the last, the elderly Cumaean Sibyl.
Raphael should have represented the greatest examples of virtue and wisdom of the past, as well as the first connoisseurs of the arrival of the Messiah: the Sibyls and the Prophets. In that same year, the artist, although still absorbed by the work for the Vatican Rooms, set to work on the subject. Despite some damage, the fresco is generally considered to be an autograph, unlike the lunette above it with figures of Prophets and angels.
Various preparatory studies remain of the sibyls, especially at the British and the Ashmolean Museum.
Next to them Raphael places Virgil’s verses that refer to a new lineage that “descends from heaven”, to reaffirm the prophecy of the advent of Jesus. In the next episode we will go to see what these frescoes represent.
